Thanks, mate. That's exactly what I was going for. It's always difficult to make characters that people will actually like. If you try too hard to make them sympathetic they can end up bland or flawless or preachy but if you go too far the other way they can become grotesque bastards. Always gratifying to hear positive feedback, Perkdaddy. You are the wind beneath my wings.

Perfect example of someone mawkishly faux-sympathetic by dint of sort-of caring about other people (which is supposed to equate to a heart of gold) whilst at the same time being a loathsome asshole is Tank from My Best Friend's Girl. I'm a little bit surprised that was the first character to jump to mind as an example. Obviously the scars left by that terrible film run deeper than I thought. Can anyone think of any other examples of characters from films or TV going too far in both directions at once?